Write about a book that has been particularly important for me? A difficult task! In those formative youthful years when one is attempting to shape one’s identity, in the profession as well as in society, many books and articles exert an influence – now in one direction, then in another. I could have mentioned Johan… Read more »
With Politicians Who Can’t Be Bothered to Read Peace Agreements, It’s No Wonder Brexit Negotiations Are Such a Mess
Like every peace settlement, the Good Friday Agreement is a compromise document, the result of a long and difficult bargaining process that should be properly understood.
Free Access at a High Price
Plan S.: PRIO would far rather pay fees to ensure that all our publications in subscription journals are made available via open access than be forced to publish our best research in lower quality journals. The new European Plan S – an open access (OA) policy for research results – is ambitious and radical. It… Read more »
Decolonization Gone off the Rails
This summer we have had the opportunity to read about the campaign to ‘decolonize academia’: the call to improve the representation of non-Western voices in the curricula of Norwegian educational institutions. The supporters of this campaign justify it on the basis that it will challenge ways of thinking in the sciences and humanities that were… Read more »
Decolonize Academia!
Today the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) is holding a seminar titled Decolonizing the Academy. Our aim is for this seminar to start a national discussion about the legacy of the colonial era in Norwegian academia – both in relation to its formal structures and the ways in which we as researchers conceptualize and categorize… Read more »
The Long Peace Most Likely Began during the Vietnam War
Two statisticians at the University of Oslo have blown a hole in Steven Pinker’s famous theory that the Long Peace dates from 1945 onwards. But Pinker is excited about the new calculations, which suggest that this more peaceful period instead began in 1965 – during the Vietnam War. In his 2011 book, The Better Angels… Read more »
Confessions of a Defector from Sociology (1)
I am very grateful to the Norwegian Sociological Association for awarding me its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2018 (Norwegian original of the citation here, English translation here). Why did I become a sociologist? Why did I leave? And: Do I regret it? In fact, I find this exceptionally generous. Although I… Read more »
Nils Petter Gleditsch
The Norwegian Sociological Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 goes to a researcher whose exceptional career has had a significant impact on international social research. The reasons for the jury’s decision appear below. Brief biography For this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, there is a link between the circumstances of his birth and his… Read more »
From Wales to Catalonia and Beyond: Gene Sharp and Non-Violent Nationalism
Gene Sharp – a pioneer in the study of non-violent action – died peacefully at the age of 90 on 28 January 2018. Obituaries in many newspapers have highlighted his contributions to the study of non-violent resistance against dictatorial regimes, pointing to how his work inspired the Arab Spring and his reputation as a “dictator’s… Read more »
Gene Sharp Has Died and the World Has Lost a Global Educator
Just a week after his 90th birthday, Gene Sharp passed away 28 January. The magazine New Statesman once described Gene Sharp as the “Machiavelli of Nonviolence” and Thomas Weber labelled him “the Clausewitz of Nonviolent Action.” Who was this man, and what did he contribute to our understanding of the use of nonviolent tactics in… Read more »